Breaking down the statements of the woman responsible for a $200,000 hole

It's thoroughly amusing to see politicians put a spin on their boo-boos and flub-ups.

I wrote earlier this year about the Bluffton Town Council's pricy budget retreat.

As much as I would have loved to get a public response to why they felt it necessary to spend $10,000 to go down the street to Palmetto Bluff to talk, I understand the behind-the-scenes explanation for the silence.

There was nothing to gain and everything to lose by trying to defend it.

If I had any doubt that our council made the right choice in their silence, Beaufort County treasurer Joy Logan erased that wavering Tuesday.

Logan released a 6,000-word manifesto in response to County Administrator Gary Kubic's call for her to resign.

Why would Kubic make such bold statements against a leader in place since 1991?

Well, it appears that under her watch, an employee set up dummy corporations and transferred more than $200,000 of my and your money to a slush fund that apparently was drained dry by her and her boyfriend.

When a public leader blows through $200,000 thanks to lack of oversight, it seems reasonable for Kubic to raise a stink.

Not so much to Logan. She's mad as hell, threatening injunctions and pointing fingers at just about everyone else but herself.

Just to make sure that we're not improperly paraphrasing Logan, let's play back some of the highlights of her rambling statement.

"I am proud of my accomplishments and the achievements for Beaufort County and would certainly do nothing to jeopardize that."

Except let an employee dupe you out of enough to pay for five or six teacher salaries. I guess that doesn't count.

"In the event there is a continuance of Gary Kubic's unnecessary remarks by any means, an injunction will be filed."

I talked to a few lawyers Tuesday. The only grounds for an injunction they could come up with is, "You're a meanie. You hurt my feelings."

Logan said she first found a missing deposit of $2,593 from the county's delinquent tax sale account on about Sept. 19, 2009.

"I told him I thought I had a serious problem."

We intercepted an e-mail response from Kubic. Very brief, but accurate.

"No (expletive deleted), Sherlock."

Logan said in the statement that she and her staff found another $10,000 missing.

"We did not consider any check transactions but as it turned out there were fraudulent check transactions."

Again, I'm not a Wall Street money manager or anything. All I know is the first thing the teller asks me when I make a deposit is, "Are you depositing cash or checks?"

So you might think that the treasurer who has been in place since 1991 might have cash and checks on her CSI-esque to-do list.

"The whole time the staff and I were looking, Casaundra White was right there with us and very upset because one of those transactions ... was hers and she was very distraught and she felt betrayed that someone would do something like this to their fellow employees. She even went through the receipt book for the delinquent tax sale account several times."

White's probably the one who told Logan, "Don't you worry your crowded little head about those check transactions. I'll take care of that."

"For months, even after meeting with Gary Kubic, there was no attempt from anyone, including David Starkey from finance and Bryan Hill, deputy administrator, and Tom McNeish from ElliottDavis LLC, external auditors, to assist the Treasurer's Office with the missing funds. I requested many times with no response."

A classic diversion of blame. Throw as many names out there as possible to throw us off the scent of idiocy. It's only surprising she didn't list every bank teller and anyone with the title of treasurer in Beaufort County.

Just one flaw in her blame game. The treasurer tracks money. I was student council treasurer at South Portland High School in 1990. I remember tracking money. I'm just saying.

How were they going to assist? Oh, that's right. They would have asked you if you went through the check transactions.

Yeah, you're right. That would helped.

"I never have experienced such a crime like this in my life.... I need more security but I don't know if a security system would have detected this but it sure would have helped...."

Yes, because my ADT system at home goes off every time I try to take a check out of the house.

"With a staff of 15 people or more during one of these days they didn't see or suspect anything. There are criminals that know how to embezzle. They are smart thieves and know how to accomplish these crimes."

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You ignore other statements she made that showed the software problems with a new program the county bought. She found that it was not reliable and she had to buy Quickbooks and use an Excel worksheet to make up the deficiencies. That is how they found the missing deficiencies reported to Kubic. The Clerk of Court office is also being investigated. Her reports of a deficient software program, which also sent out false notices for defaulted properties, has been ignored by county officials. Why?

I think she is being made a scapegoat by Kubic for problems that exist in the county government. Her 19 exceptional year record speaks for itself. Why Kubic sought the media to discuss internal deficiencies instead of having meetings with appropriate heads to resolve problems shows questionable motives.

As for her decision not to resign, why should she? When the school district suffered through the pedophile teacher, costing millions of dollars in court awards, did the principal or superintendent resign? When a school employee was found embezzling 12,000.00 ot PTO money, did anyone resign? Not only that the employee was to pay back the 12,000.00 and so far has paid 6,000.00 and no more. Why? No resignations from the district.

What is needed is to cease inflammatory unproven statements in the press. Also the public officials, including Logan, should meet and resolve any issues of concern in a professional manner. We pay them to do that. If there is a software problem, get the techs busy and correct them and hold the manufacturer responsible.

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